Foreign Affairs

The State Department estimates that about 1,000 children are abducted from the United States each year. International parental child abduction refers to cases in which one parent takes a child from the United States or keeps a child overseas, violating the parental rights, including visitation, of the parent left behind. The United States, along with 53 other countries, is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention, which established civil procedures that the State Department may use to locate or return abducted children in order to resolve custody cases. Congress also passed legislation in 1993 that allows the Justice Department to criminally prosecute abducting parents. This report discusses (1) problems with the federal government's response to international parental child abductions, (2) the Justice Department's use of the 1993 law to prosecute abducting parents, and (3) the steps that federal agencies plan to take to address the problems.

GAO noted that: (1) the Department of State and DOJ, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and left-behind parents have identified problems and issues with the federal government's response to international parental child abduction; (2) these problems include the need for more systematic diplomatic efforts to work with foreign governments to resolve problems of noncompliance with the Hague Convention and the lack of services such as financial assistance and counseling to left-behind parents; (3) State and DOJ cited weaknesses in State's system for tracking and managing child abduction cases; (4) these problems create obstacles to left-behind parents in their attempts to locate, gain access to, and secure the return of their children; (5) DOJ's use of the 1993 International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act has been limited; (6) since 1993, DOJ has indicted 62 parents under the act, which resulted in 13 convictions; (7) left-behind parents believe DOJ has not used this law to sufficiently prosecute parents who abduct children from the United States; (8) DOJ believes that each abduction requires a review based on its merits to decide whether to prosecute an abducting parent, including whether such prosecution might compromise efforts to return a child under the Hague Convention; (9) both DOJ and State note that criminal prosecution seeks to punish abducting parents but does not seek or ensure the return of the child; (10) State and DOJ have recognized that they have problems and have planned actions they believe will correct most of them; (11) for example, they plan to close gaps in federal services to left-behind parents, develop an integrated case-tracking system to manage international child abduction cases, and undertake studies to improve compliance with the Hague Convention; (12) although some progress has been made in these areas, their plans lack the details necessary for effective implementation; and (13) for example, State and DOJ have not developed a clear strategy or plan that defines measurable goals, objectives, and resources required to fully implement their planned actions.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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